Electroactive trilayer actuators taking advantage of the ionic conductivity and self-adhesion of ionic liquid plasticized starch

Abstract

Ionic liquid (IL) plasticized potato starch and pure amylose films are used as Ionically Conductive Polymers (ICP) for manufacturing electroactive polymer trilayer films able to change of shape upon electrical stimulus, and to work as motion sensors. This promising alternative to fossil fuel based ICPs takes advantage of the water solubility of the starch/IL mixture and its stickiness after casting as films, allowing the design of a solvent free, origami inspired process for its assembly with PEDOT:PSS electrodes.Electroactive free bending motions with an amplitude of deformation Δε of 0.45% are observed upon ± 2 V electrical stimulus for all EAPs, with a 7-fold higher blocking force for the pure amylose based system making it able to lift more than 180 times its weight.Conversely, when tested as sensors, a 4-fold higher sensitivity is observed for the potato starch based EAP, which was comparable to that of fossil-fuel based polymers systems.

Keywords

• Starch
• Amylose
• Ionic liquids
• Electroactive
• Sensors
• Actuators